Triggering Transference: Examining the Role of Applicability in the Activation and Use of Significant-Other Representations in Social Perception

Chen, Serena; Andersen, Susan M.; Hinkley, Katrina

doi:10.1521/soco.1999.17.3.332

Cited by 28 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…Our findings advance this work by suggesting that the activation of a significant-other representation-for example, in the context of transference-may be an instigator of self-evaluative processes. As noted at the outset, significant-other representations are chronically accessible (Andersen et al, 1995;Chen, Andersen, & Hinkley, 1999); our findings therefore suggest that the activation of significant-other representations is one possible mechanism by which selfevaluative tendencies are perpetuated. Continuing in this vein, our results point to a potentially nonconscious and therefore difficult barrier to self-concept change among people who hold unfavorable self-views.…”

Section: Relations To Broader Literaturessupporting

confidence: 69%

Striving to be known by significant others: Automatic activation of self-verification goals in relationship contexts.

Kraus¹,

Chen²

2009

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

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Extending research on the automatic activation of goals associated with significant others, the authors hypothesized that self-verification goals typically pursued with significant others are automatically elicited when a significant-other representation is activated. Supporting this hypothesis, the activation of a significant-other representation through priming (Experiments 1 and 3) or through a transference encounter (Experiment 2) led participants to seek feedback that verifies their preexisting self-views. Specifically, significant-other primed participants desired self-verifying feedback, in general (Experiment 1), from an upcoming interaction partner (Experiment 2), and relative to acquaintance-primed participants and favorable feedback (Experiment 3). Finally, self-verification goals were activated, especially for relational self-views deemed high in importance to participants' self-concepts (Experiment 2) and held with high certainty (Experiment 3). Implications for research on self-evaluative goals, the relational self, and the automatic goal activation literature are discussed, as are consequences for close relationships.

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Section: Relations To Broader Literaturessupporting

confidence: 69%

Striving to be known by significant others: Automatic activation of self-verification goals in relationship contexts.

Kraus¹,

Chen²

2009

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

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“…Such representation-consistent memory effects also occur more for resemblance to a significant-other representation than for resemblance to a social category (stereotype or trait concept) that the individual tends to use (Andersen & Cole, 1990;Chen, Andersen, & Hinkley, 1999). Such evidence argues against the interpretation that the effect is reducible to the activation of a generic social 40…”

Section: The Influence Of Significant-other Representations On New Inmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Relational Self and Pre-existing Depression: Implicit Activation of Significant-other Representations Exacerbates Dysphoria and Evokes Rejection in the Working Self-concept

2013

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“…Research has also shown that significant-other representations are chronically accessible, which means they have a special readiness to be activated regardless of contextual cues, although the presence of transient cues heightens this chronic readiness further (Andersen et al, 1995). In our research, we have relied heavily on cues in a stimulus person that match stored knowledge about a significant other-to transiently activate significant-other representations-because we view such applicability-based cues as an analog for cues that perceivers might encounter in ordinary, faceto-face interactions (S. Chen, Andersen, & Hinkley, 1999). Such cues need not be attended to in a conscious sense but instead may contribute to knowledge activation even if registered only beneath the threshold of conscious awareness (Glassman & Andersen, 1999a).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The relational self: An interpersonal social-cognitive theory.

Andersen¹,

Chen²

2002

Psychological Review

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630

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The authors propose an interpersonal social-cognitive theory of the self and personality, the relational self, in which knowledge about the self is linked with knowledge about significant others, and each linkage embodies a self-other relationship. Mental representations of significant others are activated and used in interpersonal encounters in the social-cognitive phenomenon of transference (S. M. Andersen & N. S. Glassman, 1996), and this evokes the relational self. Variability in relational selves depends on interpersonal contextual cues, whereas stability derives from the chronic accessibility of significant-other representations. Relational selves function in if-then terms (W. Mischel & Y. Shoda, 1995), in which ifs are situations triggering transference, and thens are relational selves. An individual's repertoire of relational selves is a source of interpersonal patterns involving affect, motivation, self-evaluation, and self-regulation.

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Triggering Transference: Examining the Role of Applicability in the Activation and Use of Significant-Other Representations in Social Perception

Cited by 28 publications

References 50 publications

Striving to be known by significant others: Automatic activation of self-verification goals in relationship contexts.

Striving to be known by significant others: Automatic activation of self-verification goals in relationship contexts.

The Relational Self and Pre-existing Depression: Implicit Activation of Significant-other Representations Exacerbates Dysphoria and Evokes Rejection in the Working Self-concept

The relational self: An interpersonal social-cognitive theory.

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